Monday, September 20, 2010

Fred is a guilty pleasure of mine. I find it an interesting look into the life of a hyperactive six year old who somehow gets ahold of a video camera. Considering that's the premise, its surprisingly realistic, if a lbit exaggerated at times. Most people old enough to have taste are annoyed by Fred due to his squeaky chipmunk voice, which is in itself an exaggeration of the high, annoying voices little kids have. So naturally people were dreading the release of Fred: The Movie.

As much as I enjoy Fred, the fanbase of the series, unfortunately, is made up of the same little kids and teenage girls that watch iCarly and Hannah Montana. Fred is, in my opinion, the best example of a good piece of work having its reputation ruined by a horrible fanbase. The movie was great and will probably not be appreciated by anyone who actually has the ability to appreciate it.

The idea is that nine years after the internet series takes place, Fred is still...odd. He's matured a lot, and his voice is deeper, albeit still annoying. He still has severe mental problems, and yet despite all this, you can tell he's the same person. It takes a really talented writer to jump a character far into the future, and yet be able to show the character has matured while having the audience be able to tell the character is still the person he was before the time jump.

Fred still has a crush on Judy, who has grown to no longer be the mean girl she was at age six. Her popularity hasn't decreased, though; only her mean spirit has. When Fred finds out Judy has moved across town, he goes on a journey across Namelesscity, USA that is made to look far more epic than it is, especially considering that Judy's house was only a mere few minutes away (Fred had to take a much longe route thanks to his nemesis Kevin). I wonder if anyone who worked on the film was familiar with Casey at the Bat.

My only real criticism of the movie is that it has not one, but two party montages that play out more like music videos than scenes in a movie. On a minor note, I also was confused by a flashback scene that had a younger Fred played by an actual little kid. I suppose that was unavoidable, considering the older Fred looks exactly like the younger Fred, but it's still confusing. Another minor complaint about continuity that I have is about Fred's dad. Throughout the movie we get treated to Fred's imaginary visions of his father, but for a moment second we get to see Fred's actual father. He apparantly wasn't on death row, as stated in the series. Besides that one real two minor complaints, this is a great movie for fans of the show. It really feels like a series finale, mostly because of the time jump, but there is currently no evidence that Lucas Cruishank is planning on ending his webseries about Fred at age six. That will cause some confusion.